The Sassy Gazette

The Unsolved Murder of Betsy Aardsma: Secrets, Suspects, and A Campus That Wants to Forget | The Sassy Gazette The Unsolved Murder of Betsy Aardsma: Secrets, Suspects, and A Campus That Wants to Forget Brought to you by The Sassy Gazette Dicking Around With Richie: A True Crime Feed On November 28, 1969, Penn State University witnessed something it had never seen before murder. Betsy Aardsma, a 22-year-old graduate student, was brutally stabbed inside the supposedly safe walls of Pattee Library. More than fifty years later, her murder remains officially unsolved. But should it be? And is Penn State hiding something deeper than just an unsolved crime? A Crime in the Stacks Betsy Aardsma seemed like the last person in the world to meet a violent end. A serious student, modest and studious, she was engaged to her boyfriend, David Wright, and had transferred to Penn State from the University of Michigan. Yet on the afternoon after Thanksgiving, Betsy walked into Pattee...

Invisible Targets: Violence, Addiction, and the Fight for Hate Crime Protection for the Homeless Invisible Targets: The Violence, Stigma, and Struggle of America’s Homeless Some stories keep me awake at night. The story of Aaron Taylor is one of them. It was Christmas Day, 2007, in Phoenix, Arizona. Aaron a man who struggled with homelessness and addiction was sleeping on a bench outside a Subway restaurant. That night, he was set on fire by people who saw him as nothing more than garbage. He suffered burns over half his body and died in agony at the hospital. His killers have never been brought to justice. He was 36 years old. Stories like Aaron’s are not isolated. Across cities, suburbs, and small towns, people experiencing homelessness endure acts of violence so brutal they barely sound real: beaten while they sleep, urinated on for sport, stabbed, shot, or set ablaze simply because they exist in public view. These are not random attacks. They’re hate crimes , ...

The Unresolved Murder of Aaron Taylor: Merry F***ing Christmas Dicking Around With Richie: A True Crime Feed, brought to you by The Sassy Gazette. 🎧 Shoutout to Crime Junkie First off, I have to thank the folks over at Crime Junkie . Their episode about Aaron Taylor grabbed my attention and sent me down a whole rabbit hole. And major props to them for not using the phrase “Less Dead.” Because, newsflash  nobody is less dead. Christmas Day: Peace, Joy…and Murder? The incident marked a brutal end to what should have been a day of peace and celebration. Christmas is supposed to be about joy, family, goodwill, and compassion. But instead, on December 25, 2007, Phoenix, Arizona, became the backdrop for unspeakable horror. Aaron Taylor, a 36-year-old man experiencing homelessness, was found burning alive outside a Subway restaurant at 4326 East Cactus Road. The sheer brutality of the crime the burning alive of a man who already lived a hard life creates a powerful sen...

The Day Peace Shattered: The West Nickel Mines Amish School Shooting and Its Haunting Legacy On October 2, 2006, the quiet farmlands of Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, bore witness to an act of unimaginable horror. The West Nickel Mines Amish School a place symbolizing peace and simplicity became the site of one of the most shocking school shootings in American history. I was living in Lancaster City when the shooting happened. I remember feeling utterly shocked that something so violent could happen in the Amish community a community many of us viewed as untouched by the chaos of the outside world. It was a harsh reminder that no place is truly immune to violence. A Sinister Plan Unfolds That October morning started like any other at the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School. But around 10:00 a.m., Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year-old milk truck driver known to some of the children from his delivery route, entered the school under the pretense of looking for...

The Unyielding Shadow: Was George Reeves’s Death Suicide or Murder? By Dicking Around With Richie: A True Crime Feed Diving Into The Mystery While doing my deep dive into the mysterious death of George Reeves, I fell down a major rabbit hole of YouTube videos, podcasts, and countless blog posts. One of my most fascinating finds was on Unsolved.com , which offered a great summary of the Reeves case and an even juicier comments section. That’s where I stumbled on Lisa Maccini’s comment , which completely stopped me in my tracks. Lisa wrote: There is no doubt in my mind that Lenore Lemmon killed him. She did it to my Grandfather, Jack Whittemore, a very respectable jazz bookie who had lots of money. My Grandmother passed away 6 weeks before his death. Lenore tricked him into marrying her by getting him so intoxicated that he didn’t even remember marrying her… She had sought out a Justice of the Peace and paid the doorman to be their witness. When they returned to my Grandfa...

The Sassy Gazette Proudly Presents: Dicking Around With Richie: A True Crime Feed “A Family Torn Asunder: The Freeman Family Murders and the Neo-Nazi Nightmare” Buckle up, true crime fam, because today we’re diving into a case that still leaves me reeling the horrific Freeman Family murders of 1995. And let me say right out of the gate: the surviving Freeman family members said they weren’t even surprised the Freeman boys murdered their family. Let that sink in. This wasn’t just a murder. This was a full-blown eruption of hatred, mental illness, extremist ideology, and shattered family bonds all converging in a bloodbath that stunned Pennsylvania and the entire country. ⚔️ Two Armies Under One Roof Life in the Freeman home was like two warring armies sharing the same cramped battlefield. On one side, Dennis and Brenda Freeman, devout Jehovah’s Witnesses, clinging to faith, family, and non-violence. On the other side, Bryan (17) and David (16) Freeman teenage neo-Nazis ...

The Sassy Gazette Proudly Presents: Dicking Around With Richie- A True Crime Feed The Jasmine Forbes Case: How Does Someone Just Vanish Into Thin Air? By RICHIE D MOWREY for The Sassy Gazette (Dicking Around With Richie) There’s a question that haunts me every time I dive into Jasmine Forbes’ story: How does someone just disappear without a trace? It’s been three years since Jasmine Lynn Forbes vanished from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, on February 23, 2022 the same day two men were gunned down and their house set ablaze. Jasmine’s life intersected with pure violence, and whatever happened that day rippled all the way to Pasco County, Florida, where months later, her remains were found. Yet here we are in 2025, still asking the same damn questions : How did Jasmine flee to Florida? Who helped her or was she forced to go? Was she kidnapped and taken there against her will? And the biggest question of all: Who murdered Jasmine Forbes? Two Murders, One Disappeara...